Google+ Badge

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

A Tale Of Two Richards

As the investigation into Israel’s war in Gaza continues apace, it gives the world a chance to see how righteous gentiles are often better friends to world Jewry than many Jews. The case of the ‘two Richards’ – South African Jewish Judge Goldstone and British gentile military man, Colonel Kemp is a classic example.

As The U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva sent the Goldstone Report to the body’s Security Council, Judge Goldstone condemned the HRC for ignoring his commission's findings on Hamas war crimes.

Now, that’s chutzpa! As the Jewish and Zionist lawyer has also accused Israel of heinous war crimes during Operation Cast Lead, I can but compare him to the story of the man who murdered his parents and then begged mercy from the court on grounds that he was an orphan.

Goldstone, who agreed to lead the fact-finding mission only if he could also investigate Hamas said he was "saddened" by the resolution.

"There is not a single phrase condemning Hamas as we have done in the report," he complained.

Contrast the UN Watch Statement, delivered by Colonel Kemp on Friday last week at the UN Human Rights Council Special Session on the Goldstone Report.

For the second time since the war last winter, Colonel Kemp has gone to extraordinary lengths to praise and defend the role of the Israeli military in Gaza. Why a gentleman like him should do so, is beyond me. I’d truly love to meet him to discover why.

“Thank you, Mr. President. I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Governments Joint Intelligence Committee.

“Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.

“Hamas, like Hezbollah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.

“The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.

“The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks. Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes.

“There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes. More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas’s way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians. Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.

“And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare. Thank you, Mr. President”.